FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2006 FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Brett Garner Office: (801) 983-7383 Cell: (801) 573-4759 *****PRESS RELEASE***** Ashdown Would Vote No to a Filibuster, No to Alito SALT LAKE CITY, UT--After being contacted for a nationwide survey of Democratic US Senate candidates, Pete Ashdown clarified his position on the confirmation of Samuel J. Alito to the US Supreme Court. Ashdown made the following statement Tuesday morning. "On Monday, January 23, The Hill newspaper in Washington, DC, contacted me as part of a national survey of Democratic US Senate challengers. During that survey, I stated that, were I Utah's Senator, I would vote against confirming Judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court. During these times of rigorous debate over Executive power, I am concerned that Judge Alito's positions put him in favor of the Executive branch over the Legislative and Judicial. We need a nominee who values not only constitutional balance of power, but gives balanced judgments neither conservative nor liberal." "However, I do not support Democratic attempts to filibuster the nomination. Furthermore, I do not support any filibuster of judicial nominees. I consider the filibuster the immoral and unethical equivalent to Senator Hatch's blocking of President Clinton's nominees from even receiving a hearing in the Judiciary committee. The Judiciary is too important a branch to be held hostage by partisan politics; whether it is a Republican chairman obstructing nominees from receiving hearings or whether it's a Democratic minority filibustering nominees from receiving a vote, I will not stand up as an obstructionist. Obstruction is the last resort of people with no ideas of how to change things. "Opposition cannot merely be obstruction; opposition must be a viable alternative. Democrats will never win a debate about judicial nominees when their main strategy is obstruction. As a Senator, I will present a clear vision as to who I would vote for our courts, including: checking and balancing the other branches of government, protecting our Constitutional rights, and enabling courts to become more accessible to more citizens. If the people want a Judiciary based on this model, they should vote for me." Ashdown will be available for comments from 3-4 PM MDT on Tuesday; he will also be visiting three State of the Union watch parties at various times tomorrow night. Contact the information above for more information.